Knowing that US Targets were getting special Hot Wheels shippers with the last batch of 2017 Red Editions, it was time to visit a few. A week ago my daughter and I visited a couple of Targets, to no avail. We returned to our closest Target on Labor Day, and while nothing was new on the pegs, we found an employee and asked. We were led to the electronics department, where two boxed shippers were stacked on a cart, waiting to be hung.

The employee let us look through them, and our hunt was successful.

In the two cases of 84-count shippers, we found a few sets of the Red Editions, and my daughter was stoked to find her second Super, the purple Velocita.

Fast forward a few days. I am in another town on business, and I had some time for a visit to Target. The pegs were pretty empty, and there looked to be no P Case remnants, so I found an employee, asked if they had a shipper in back, and he went and checked. A few minutes later, he returned with a fresh shipper:

A quick rummage through the shipper yielded a few more models I wanted, including a Velocita Super for myself.

That was fun. Even though this isn’t my favorite Super of the year, it is always fun to find a Super.

But there is more to the story. Remember, over the two visits, I opened three fresh shippers. In the first shipper, I found a few Chevelle and Firebird Red Editions, but no Kool Kombis. In the second, I found a few of all three. In the third? Only these:

Yep. In the last shipper, these three Chevelles were all the Red Editions in the shipper. No Firebirds, no Kool Kombis.

The point? Nothing is guaranteed. I imagine as the shippers are made, the Red Editions have already been mixed in, meaning there is no set number of exclusives reserved for each shipper. And that seems to mean you really have no idea what you will come across when you walk into a Target.

Mix in the fact that a model like the Kool Kombi is one of the most popular Hot Wheels castings these days, it makes these more and more difficult to find.

The solution would be to make more, which is probably a good idea. It seems there have been fewer exclusives this year, not in terms of releases, but numbers actually produced. It seems some Zamac batches have been in very small numbers, and I have never seen the Kroger releases, including the white Lamborghini Veneno. Don’t call it a complaint, it just seems there are fewer. And maybe that is the point. The more difficult they are to find, maybe the more we hunt. I doubt the release numbers is that clever, but we all want what we can’t get. That is a basic rule of collecting. (See: Super Treasure Hunt)

Hopefully a second round is coming, and those that want these can find them. And maybe find a few extra for some overseas friends. We will have to see.

Awesome find’s you and your daughter found congrats to the both of you thumbs up. I went to a Target Wednesday and they’re Peg’s are bare and there wasn’t no p case car’s or shippers at all. And I went to another Target today there was new p case car’s there in the pegs but no red edition car’s at all or shippers. And my best Friend wen yesterday to target and he found for me 2 of the red edition car’s out of 3 shippers the 1967 Pontiac firebird 400, and the 1970 Chevy chevelle SS. There wasn’t no Volkswagen kool kombi’s there at all. So I’m still on the hunt for that one.

I went to a Target on Wednesday and there wasn’t no p case mainline hotwheels there or shippers. And I went to another Target today there was p case mainline hotwheels there on the Peg’s but there wasn’t no red edition car’s or shippers. And yesterday my Best Friend went to a Target and he found for me 2 of the recd edition car’s the 1967 Pontiac firebird 400 and the 1970 Chevy chevelle SS out of 3 shippers but there wasn’t no Volkswagen kool kombi’s. So I’m still on the hunt for this one.

Here in Suburban Philadelphia, I had fair success in finding the first few Red Editions in my local Targets. But, the last new batch I’ve seen has been L. There are just still too many generics from earlier 2017 & late 2016 still clogging the pegs.

I went to a Target over the weekend. What a disappointment on so many levels. Total of 8 matchbox. More HW but all old stuff. Like M case or previous. Nothing good or new left on the pegs. And then the folks that find the good cars buy several of them, leaving a bunch of white-tired, colored clear plastic mess for the rest of us. Even kids don’t stop to look at that junk anymore. But hey hey, HW makes 365 new models this year.

I finally got lucky and walked into a Target that was fresh with P case cars. That never happens in my area (SoCal). Stoked to get a couple of red kombies (left several, hope somebody found them!) plus a few nice bonus cars like the GT-R, the black kombi, the T2, and a couple of others. Keeps me going for the hunt…. 🙂 I haven’t seen any of the shippers, just cars on the pegs here.

Don’t get mad but I found three shippers at two stores,in every one the kombi was in it. The distribution was bad on the target cars. The first shipper had eight of each release two tresure hunts and a super, the second had four of each. The next store had one shipper with four kombis, one treasure hunt and two supers, and none of the other releases.
The make up of the mainline was just as weird with the then and now cars either being all there or none, hardest find the roller coaster car.
Yes I bought all the kombis.

Did the same thing. Asked nicely and the employee rolled out a shipper from the back. It had all the cars I’d been looking for the past month. Lucky me! Four red Kombis, 2 GT-R, 2 black Kombis, 1 T-2, a few white Civics and blue RX-7’s. No Super (didn;t care for that anyway). It was GREAT